Amalgamated Bank in New York has pledged to take operational steps to address global warming.
The $3.9 billion-asset bank said Monday that it will adopt policies "to reduce carbon risk" across its own assets and lending portfolio and will build products and services for clients who are "similarly concerned with the financial and moral hazards of man-made climate change."
Toward this end, the bank said it has committed to "net zero electricity," in which it expects to operate on "100% renewable energy" starting in 2017, including having its flagship branch in the Bronx run on solar power.
The bank is working with various environmental groups, including the Divest Invest network and the Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps, to develop its "plan for carbon neutrality."
Moreover, the bank will join RE100, a campaign of global corporations that have committed to 100% renewable electricity.
"As an industry that prides itself on innovation and bold action, we must all be leaders and take real action to change our course," Keith Mestrich, the president and chief executive of Amalgamated, said in a news release.
Amalgamated earlier this year hired Ivan Frishberg as first vice president of its new sustainability banking division; it serves organizations and other clients that do green-banking and other environmental work. The bank said that it will announce "several new sustainability products" later this year that could cater to clients' pursuits of environmentally friendly investments.
